Browser performance is very poor.
Browser performance is very poor.
My gaming setup is experiencing problems. Everything works well with games, Discord, and Steam—especially the browser remains quick. However, when using regular browsers like Opera GX or desktop Chrome, performance drops significantly. Even simple tasks take a long time, and multiple tabs freeze or load slowly. YouTube becomes particularly frustrating, with noticeable delays even at lower quality settings. Sometimes I encounter double-click issues and the DASH manager helps temporarily but doesn’t resolve the core problem. The lag appears across different machines, including my gaming PC and two laptops, which have been affected recently without prior issues. AdBlock is active on my desktop but not on the laptops, yet performance remains poor. It seems unrelated to hardware or ad settings. I’m considering switching browsers but doubt it will make a difference.
Unusual actions, any success with another browser? Consider updating your DNS to 8.8.8.8? Might it help? If not, look for shared issues between your laptops and desktop. It could be a network problem or a program conflict from the same app installed on both devices. Try deleting extensions and see if that resolves the issue. At least that’s what I’m hearing.
DNS? I don’t understand it at all. I’m not facing any other network problems besides the browsers, especially YouTube. My connection is smooth in games, Discord, and Steam’s web browser works just fine.
Do you have additional antivirus programs set up? Or could it be an ad blocker? (I haven't used it myself.) These tools sometimes install themselves as a plugin to your "Google Chrome" account and then automatically add themselves to any Chrome browser you're using. This occurred when my wife logged into her Chrome at work, linked Norton to her account, and it installed its scanner and password manager on her home computer. You might want to try opening Chrome without plugins—just search online for how to launch it "pure" or create a new Google account and run it. This seems like the most likely scenario since Steam's Chromium works well and you're probably logged into Chrome on all your devices. If that doesn't help and performance remains slow, updating your graphics card drivers could be an option, though it's less likely given the issue spans multiple computers.
It is suspicious is if it goes away with task manager open. That is a sign you have malware on your computer and the malware goes idle when it sees task manager running..
It could be unusual, but malware might be present. Are you currently logged in and connected to other devices? If yes, that explains how it spreads between browsers. If not, I’d follow the advice from @Allan B.